Why are Team Sky in white jerseys?

Mike Cooper

26 July 2018

Team Sky has launched a cycling kit with a special cause for the 2018 Tour de France: reducing plastic in the oceans. As part of the Sky Ocean Rescue initiative, the riders’ kit is emblazoned with a killer whale, while the team itself has pledged to reduce its consumption of single-use plastics. The initiative as a whole aims to raise awareness about plastic pollution in the oceans and to encourage people to live more environmentally-sustainable lifestyles.

“Today, we’re calling upon the cycling community to make simple changes and join us to help stop our oceans from drowning in plastic,” the team said during the launch of the new kit. Team Sky has also pledged to completely remove single-use plastics from the team’s equipment by 2020. The shirt was specially designed for the Tour de France 2018.

The Sky Ocean Rescue project, launched in January 2017, has a clear message: “Every minute, the equivalent of a rubbish truck load of plastic goes in to our oceans, it never decomposes and will remain there forever. If nothing changes, by 2050 all the plastic in the ocean could weigh more than all the fish. Our oceans health affect us all so we need to come together to take action and protect our oceans.”

This is certainly a worthy initiative for the temporary Team Sky outfit, one which has not gone un-noticed in the peleton. Team Sunweb rider Chad Haga has dubbed riding behind the well-known “Sky train” during the Tour de France 2018 as “whale watching”.

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